Network Configuration (netconf) ------------------------------- Charter Last Modified: 2010-08-31 Current Status: Active Working Group Chair(s): Bert Wijnen Mehmet Ersue Operations and Management Area Director(s): Dan Romascanu Ronald Bonica Operations and Management Area Advisor: Dan Romascanu Technical Advisor(s): Charlie Kaufman Mailing Lists: General Discussion:netconf@ietf.org To Subscribe: netconf-request@ietf.org In Body: in msg body: subscribe Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/netconf/ Description of Working Group: Configuration of networks of devices has become a critical requirement for operators in today's highly interoperable networks. Operators from large to small have developed their own mechanisms or used vendor specific mechanisms to transfer configuration data to and from a device, and for examining device state information which may impact the configuration. Each of these mechanisms may be different in various aspects, such as session establishment, user authentication, configuration data exchange, and error responses. The NETCONF Working Group has produced a protocol suitable for network configuration, with the following characteristics: - Provides retrieval mechanisms which can differentiate between configuration data and non-configuration data - Is extensible enough so that vendors can provide access to all configuration data on the device using a single protocol - Has a programmatic interface (avoids screen scraping and formatting-related changes between releases) - Uses an XML-based data representation, that can be easily manipulated using non-specialized XML manipulation tools. - Supports integration with existing user authentication methods - Supports integration with existing configuration database systems - Supports multiple (e.g. candidate and running) data-stores to optimize configuration preparation and activation - Supports network wide configuration transactions (with features such as locking and rollback capability) - Runs over a secure transport; SSH is mandatory to implement while TLS, BEEP, and SOAP are optional transports. - Provides support for asynchronous notifications. The NETCONF protocol has been designed independent of the data modeling language. The IETF recommends to use YANG as the NETCONF modeling language, which introduces advanced language features for configuration management. In the current phase of the incremental development of NETCONF the workgroup will focus on following items: 1. NETCONF implementations have shown that the specification in RFC4741 is not 100% clear and has lead to different interpretations and implementations. Also some errors have been uncovered. So the WG will do an rfc4741bis with following constraints: - bug fixes are to be done - clarifications can be done - extensions can be done only when needed to fix bugs or inconsistencies (i.e. we are not doing a NETCONF V2) - The work was started based on the discussion in IETF #73 (see http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/08nov/slides/netconf-3.pdf). 2. A technical errata has been posted on rfc4742. The work on rfc4741bis also uncovered some additional fixes/clarifications that need to be made to rfc4742, the WG has been working on rfc4742bis and is nearly done with this work item. 3. Netconf Access Control Model (NACM) Requirements and Solution. There is a need for standard mechanisms to restrict NETCONF protocol access for authenticated users to a pre- configured (by operator) subset of all available NETCONF operations and content. The WG will produce a document which identifies the access control requirements specific to the NETCONF protocol, as defined in [4741bis]. This document will also provide a standard YANG data model which addresses these requirements. It is possible that the WG will not reach solution consensus on every possible requirement identified in the document. In this case, it is expected that the solution will evolve over time to meet the the remaining unmet requirements. 4. The NETCONF server may want to notify interested clients about particular NETCONF protocol/server events. The WG will work on a NETCONF specific YANG module(s) to define suitable notifications. 5. As implementation and deployment experience gained with the NETCONF monitoring data model, the WG may revise the NETCONF monitoring data model to add additional objects that can be used to check the status of the server and to discover additional information about the server implementation. The WG may choose to revise the NETCONF monitoring data model. Goals and Milestones: Done Working Group formed Done Submit initial Netconf Protocol draft Done Submit initial Netconf over (transport-TBD) draft Done Begin Working Group Last Call for the Netconf Protocol draft Done Begin Working Group Last Call for the Netconf over (transport-TBD) draft Done Submit final version of the Netconf Protocol draft to the IESG Done Submit final version of the Netconf over SOAP draft to the IESG Done Submit final version of the Netconf over BEEP draft to the IESG Done Submit final version of the Netconf over SSH draft to the IESG Done Update charter Done Submit first version of NETCONF Notifications document Done Begin WGLC of NETCONF Notifications document Done Submit final version of NETCONF Notifications document to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Done -00 draft for NETCONF Monitoring Done -00 draft for Fine Grain Locking Done -00 draft for NETCONF over TLS Done -00 draft for Schema Advertisement Done Early Review of client authentication approach (for NETCONF over TLS) with the security community at IETF 71 Done WG Last Call on NETCONF Monitoring after IETF72 Done WG Last Call on NETCONF over TLS after IETF72 Done WG Last Call on Fine Grain Locking after IETF72 Done Send Partial Locking to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standards Done Initial WG draft for with-defaults capability Done Initial WG draft for rfc4741bis Done WG Last Call on NETCONF Monitoring after IETF73 Done Submit first WG draft for rfc4742bis Aug 2010 WG Last Call on rfc4741bis Aug 2010 Send with-defaults to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Sep 2010 first WG draft (rev 00) on NACM posted Sep 2010 rfc4741bis to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Sep 2010 Send rfc4742bis to IESG for consideration as proposed Standard Sep 2010 first WG draft (rev 00) on NETCONF specific YANG modules posted Jan 2011 WGLC for NACM document Jan 2011 WGLC for NETCONF specific notifications document Mar 2011 (if needed last) WGLC for NACM document Mar 2011 (if needed last) WGLC for NETCONF specific notifications document Apr 2011 submit NACM document to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Apr 2011 submit NETCONF specific notifications document to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Internet-Drafts: Posted Revised I-D Title ------ ------- -------------------------------------------- Jan 2008 Jun 2010 YANG Module for NETCONF Monitoring Feb 2009 Aug 2010 With-defaults capability for NETCONF Mar 2009 Aug 2010 Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) Jan 2010 Jul 2010 Using the NETCONF Configuration Protocol over Secure Shell (SSH) Sep 2010 Sep 2010 Network Configuration Protocol Access Control Model Request For Comments: RFC Stat Published Title ------- -- ----------- ------------------------------------ RFC4741 PS Dec 2006 NETCONF Configuration Protocol RFC4742 PS Dec 2006 Using the NETCONF Configuration Protocol over Secure Shell (SSH) RFC4744 PS Dec 2006 Using the NETCONF Protocol over Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP) RFC4743 PS Dec 2006 Using the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) Over the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) RFC5277 PS Jul 2008 NETCONF Event Notifications RFC5539 PS May 2009 NETCONF Over Transport Layer Security (TLS) RFC5717 PS Dec 2009 Partial Lock Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for NETCONF